Virus Infections and Type 1 Diabetes Risk

Common intestinal infections caused by human enteroviruses (HEVs) are considered major environmental factors predisposing to type 1 diabetes (T1D). In spite of the active research of the field, the HEV-induced pathogenetic processes are poorly understood. Recently, after the first documented report on HEV infections in the pancreatic islets of deceased T1D patients, several groups became interested in the issue and studied valuable human material, the autopsy pancreases of diabetic and/or autoantibody-positive patients for HEV infections. In this review, the data on HEV infections in human pancreatic islets are discussed with special reference to the methods used. Likewise, mechanisms that could increase viral access to the pancreas are reviewed and discussed.